U.S.-Russian Security Relations

Fraught U.S.-Russian security dynamics have spurred reevaluations of the entire relationship between the two former Cold War adversaries. The Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM)’s U.S.-Russia Security Relations project focuses on establishing a constructive agenda for the two countries that includes security issues where the risks for confrontation are high but where cooperation to reduce shared dangers is possible.

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This discussion paper analyzes a sample of 2014-2016 Russian-language publications focused on Russia’s security relations with the United States. It characterizes the Russian expert debate at that time as dichotomous in nature, where security policy analysts proposed either coercive or restrained policy approaches in dealing with perceived threats. It assesses similarities and differences of these two perspectives with regard to the nature of Russia’s political-military relationship with the West, as well as past challenges and then-future opportunities in nuclear arms...

Those who care about U.S.-Russian security cooperation have been forced since the early 2000s to keep finding fresh ways to describe each downward step. Relations have repeatedly hit “their lowest point since the end of the Cold War.” A recent...

The stabilizing role of the INF Treaty is still relevant. Its importance has even increased against the background of the sharp deterioration of relations between Russia and the West in recent years due to the well-known events in Ukraine, aggravated...

This paper explores the correlates of Russia’s aggressive international policy and argues that rising oil revenues increase the aggressiveness of presidential foreign-policy rhetoric. Using content analysis and machine-learning techniques, I generate a measure of aggressive discourse as the share of...

While concern about renewed international competition in the Arctic has attracted significant attention, the continuation of cooperation and adherence to international rules and norms of behavior is a far more likely outcome. The magnitude of activity in the region remains...

This paper defines crisis stability, places it into a broad historical context, and outlines some of its challenges today. For the purposes of our discussion, “crisis stability” is a state in which parties to a confrontation do not have incentives...

Contrary to conventional wisdom that views President Trump’s foreign policy as unpredictable, a recent Foreign Affairs analysis argues that in fact his most controversial positions—questioning NATO, seeking to pull out of Syria, starting trade wars—are all consistent with the worldview...

What does the recent decision by President Donald Trump to pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty mean for broader U.S.-Russian security relations? According to Amy Woolf, a Specialist in Nuclear Weapons Policy at the Congressional Research Service...